JM Eagle LA Championship 2025 Tips: Four names to know this week in LA

The JM Eagle LA Championship takes place this week from the El Caballero Country Club in Los Angeles as the players warm-up for the first Women's Major of the year next week. The purse available is $3,750,000 for the week with 500 CME points on the line.

Our expert golf tipster Jamie Worsley has had a very busy week here on Betfred Insights with preview for both PGA Tour events and over on the DP World Tour. He isn't finished though as he previews this one and provides four players who should be considered backing each-way. You can check out his thoughts and his JM Eagle LA Championship Betting Tips below...

The LPGA returns to action and with the first women's major just one week away, we get a final look at some of the main contenders in L.A. Where El Caballero Country Club will host the JM Eagle LA Championship for the first time. 

TOURNAMENT HISTORY 

The JM Eagle LA Championship – formerly the LA Open – debuted in 2018 and excluding 2020, it has been played every year since. Each previous edition was staged at Wilshire Country Club; however, El Caballero Country Club takes over hosting duties this year, as Wilshire undergoes renovations. 

Tournament Winners: 

• 2024 – Winner: Hannah Green (-12) 

Runner-up: Maja Stark (-9) 

• 2023 – Winner: Hannah Green (-9, playoff) 

Runners-up: Aditi Ashok, Xiyu Lin (-9) 

• 2022 – Winner: Nasa Hataoka (-15) 

Runner-up: Hannah Green (-10) 

• 2021 – Winner: Brooke Henderson (-16) 

Runner-up: Jessica Korda (-15) 

• 2019 – Winner: Minjee Lee (-14) 

Runner-up: Sei Young Kim (-10) 

• 2018 – Winner: Moriya Jutanugarn (-12) 

Runners-up: Jin Young Ko, Inbee Park (-10) 

Hannah Green became the first player to win this event on two occasions last year, defending the title she won in 2023. She is back again this week, aiming to make it three wins on the spin in the event. 

THE COURSE 

El Caballero Country Club is situated Tarzana, Los Angeles and was designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1960.  

The venue was renovated in 2021 by his son, Rees Jones, along with Steve Weissner. They completed a project that mainly focused on the removal of trees to open up playing lines, the repositioning of bunkers and remodelling of all greens. 

The course plays as a par 72 and measures 6679yds. It possesses 4x par 3s (151-182yds), 10x par 4s (370-432yds) and 4x par 5s (464-534yds). 

El Caballero is a hilly and loosely tree-lined parkland course with a traditional feel. It features frequent elevation changes – both uphill and downhill – and contains a mix of tighter driving holes and those that are more spacious. 

The gently-doglegging fairways are reasonably generous, save a few, though they often find their landing areas squeezed by large white-sand bunkers; of which there are 86 throughout the property. Furthermore, although there is a lack of rough, trees are positioned smartly and require players to be strategic off the tee to enable them to attack the putting surfaces. 

Bermudagrass covers most of the course, but the heavily bunkered greens are bentgrass. These average-to-large sized surfaces are predominantly elevated and could play to a slick 12 on the stimp this week; whilst the sometimes subtle undulations are said to make them very difficult to read. 

They are littered with false-fronts and run-off areas, and with some tricky pin positions, they will require high-class iron play to access them. Meanwhile, on the four holes on which water is in-play (holes 5, 9, 10 and 17), it guards the putting surface each time. 

There is some guesswork attached to how El Caballero will play. It has plenty of scoring chances on paper, with the four par 5s all reachable and several par 4s attackable with a strong drive and a wedge. However, if we get some dry, warm and breezy weather that allows the course to firm up and get the greens up to speed, it will prove a different test entirely. 

THE WEATHER 

Conditions are forecast to be largely comfortable this week, with the majority of the event set to be played amidst clear, warm and calm weather. Although there is predicted to be a few spots of rain about on Friday, it doesn't look like anything too heavy at this point. 

KEY STATS 

• SG: Approach/Greens-in-Regulation 

• SG: Off-the-Tee and/or Driving Accuracy 

• SG: Putting (bentgrass) 

• Par 5 scoring 

These putting surfaces and their surrounds are said to be the most demanding aspect of playing at El Caballero. The best way to avoid the around-the-greens challenges or leaving yourself a difficult two-putt is by producing high-class iron play, which will be a little easier to achieve due to the benign conditions. 

Despite the generous fairways, spaciousness on many holes and lack of rough, players will still need to be smart off the tee to avoid the strategic bunkering and tree placement. Therefore, I'd want to be avoiding the more erratic drivers in the field. 

A proven ability to putt bentgrass greens is another plus, whilst it also feels important to take advantage of the scoring opportunities on the par 5s. 

CORRELATING EVENTS 

Usual host of this event, Wilshire Country Club does bare similarities to this week's venue; as an undulating, traditional and loosely tree-lined course with heavily bunkered fairways and greens. It requires a strategic approach and suits the strongest iron players. 

Similar sentiments also apply to fellow Californian course, Palos Verdes Golf Club, which hosts the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship. Along with ticking the same boxes as above, it has also recently been through its own tree-removal program and the elevation changes there are akin to what we'll see at El Caballero. 

Two additional courses to consider are the Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club and the 2024 Kroger Queen City Championship at TPC River's Bend. Each of these courses are tree-lined and hilly, possessing generous fairways and bentgrass greens. 

THE FIELD 

This week's field contains seven of the world's top 10 and 16 of the top 25, including numbers 1 and 2, Nelly Korda and Jeeno Thitikul. 

The winner of the last two years, Hannah Green goes for the hat-trick this week. She is joined by three further former champions of this event: Nasa Hataoka (2022), Brooke Henderson (2021) and Minjee Lee (2019). 

Also in attendance are two recent winners on the Ladies European Tour, Manon de Roey and Perrine Delacour; whilst we welcome the recent runner-up of the Augusta National Women's Amateur, 16-year-old Asterisk Talley, who is the current eighth-ranked amateur in the world. 

SELECTIONS 

Market leaders: Jeeno Thitikul 13/2, Nelly Korda 17/2, Haeran Ryu 12/1, Ayaka Furue 18/1, Angel Yin 20/1, Nasa Hataoka 22/1, Yealimi Noh 22/1 

A new course always makes things hard to gauge, which causes me to avoid those at the very top of the betting and keep it relatively light this week.  

That being said, this is a strong field and that usually means a top-class winner. Therefore, I'm going to take a few from just outside those main market leaders, starting with Jin Young Ko. 

Jin Young Ko 

Jin Young Ko began this season in excellent form, finishing 4th in the Tournament of Champions and 2nd in the Founders Cup in her first two starts.  

She's been a little disappointing since, recording just the further one top 20 in the HSBC Women's World Championship, but she's largely hitting the ball well and as a player who has enjoyed success in California, I'm hoping she'll spark back into life this week. 

The Korean has looked good with her irons, ranking 31st in approach and 37th in greens-in-regulation. Although not quite as accurate as in years gone by, she's still finding plenty of fairways, and ranking inside the top 20 in putting and par 5 scoring, her game should suit this test. 

Ko's first major success came in California, at the Chevron Championship back in 2019. She's carried this over into regular tour events, possessing four top-five finishes at Wilshire CC, including one as a runner-up, and having also finished 2nd at Palos Verdes GC, her comp form makes her very appealing here. 

Allisen Corpuz 

Allisen Corpuz arrives in great form and with her iron play looking especially strong, she has the game to conquer El Caballero CC. 

Corpuz has finished inside the top 25 in each of her stroke-play starts this season; two of which she's turned into top 10s, when finishing 7th in the Honda LPGA Thailand and 3rd in the Ford Championship two starts ago. 

The irons have engineered this quality, as she ranks 3rd in GIR and 13th in approach. Her precision with driver, ranking 13th in driving accuracy will also come in handy to help her navigate this venue, and gaining strokes on the greens, each part of her game looks in fine shape entering this tournament.  

Corpuz went to college in L.A and having also recorded her memorable major victory at Pebble Beach in the 2023 US Women's Open, California is no doubt a place that means a lot to her. Something she can lean on to win a first regular LPGA title this week. 

Akie Iwai 

LPGA rookie, Akie Iwai is hitting the ball just about as well as anyone this season. I believe she's more than capable of transferring the prolific winning ability that she's displayed in her native Japan in recent years over to the LPGA, and with this debuting venue levelling the playing field somewhat for these newcomers, that breakthrough win could just come this week. 

Iwai earned her LPGA card via Q-School last year, where she finished 5th. That was the final part of what had been an excellent season for 22-year-old, as she added another three JLPGA victories to her tally – after also winning three in 2023 – and picked up her first major championship top 10s, which came in the Women's Open and Evian Championship. 

She missed the cut on her first LPGA start this season but came back strong on her next start, finishing 2nd in the Honda LPGA Thailand. Further starts on the tour have been hard to come by, but she has been ticking over nicely back in Japan, gaining two top-10 finishes in her last three starts there. 

Her iron play has looked elite so far, ranking 5th in approach and 16th in GIR. She marries power with accuracy to rank 16th off-the-tee and as the 10th-best par 5 scorer, she ticks most boxes statistically. 

Akie is joined on tour by twin sister Chisato, who has also started her rookie season solidly. With eight JLPGA wins to her name herself, there's little to separate them, but it's Akie who has enjoyed the best top-level form with those two major top 10s and runner-up finish in Thailand. I'm hoping she'll be the first one to enter the winner's circle on the LPGA this week.  

Lucy Li 

Californian and once child prodigy, Lucy Li hasn't quite got going yet this season. However, she's hitting the ball well enough and possessing an eye-catching piece of comp form in relation to this test, I'm happy to take a chance on her finding form at a big price. 

Li has played four stroke-play events this season, mustering up a best of 39th in the HSBC Women's World Championship. Although, she did look much better when we last saw her in the T-Mobile Match Play, winning her first two matches before only narrowly failing to get out of the group, losing to Lauren Coughlin in extra holes. 

She's been driving it well, ranking 12th in driving accuracy and 30th off-the-tee; whilst her iron play has also been solid. It's the putter that has been damaging her chances, but she looked better on bentgrass in the Match Play and having also putted well on similar surfaces in Arkansas last year, I'm hoping she'll maintain form on the greens this week. 

Li ranked 7th on those Arkansas greens, which helped her to a runner-up finish in the event – her best ever on the LPGA – as she lost to Jasmine Suwannapura in a playoff. That result bodes well for her chances of performing here, where she can begin to realise some of that immense potential by claiming a first LPGA victory. 

Click the link for all the latest Golf Odds

Find all Jamie's Golf Betting Tips here at Betfred Insights